What follows is a relatively long and a relatively tiring story about the problems I've had and am still having with my Internet connection, problems seemingly unsolvable. This is written out of despair, hoping someone here might help me, since those who are paid for it, cannot.
You've been warned.
Here we go...
About a year ago I decided to upgrade my Internet "package"- increase download and upload, speed in general, add wireless and so on, along with upgrading my computer - new motherboard, GPU, CPU etc. along with upgrading to Win 7.
Soon after making that upgrade, I started having problems with my connection - it would get lost from time to time i.e. I'd just disconnect for a brief period of time, and then reconnect again. This would happen regardless how much of my "connection flow"was occupied - meaning regardless if I were downloading, uploading, playing something online, or simply typing messages via Skype, the connection would break, again and again.
I decided to give a call to my ISP/cable company to come and fix it. The tech support came in, did their work, mainly something with the incoming signal, though I'm not too sure... However, after a brief period of time, there was a recurrence in the problem.
I again started to lose my connection, and so on. The cable guys came again and again...and again...and again...and you get the drill. They came many, many times. They'd check my signal and equipment, say it was top notch, and then just leave.
Soon after that, I got occupied with school and so on and didn't have that much time to spend online - so the problem - which was still there - became less recognized.
Another year has passed, another summer has come. Freedom.
And with freedom comes a need for wasting time on the Internet. And with freedom comes frustration.
The problem still persisted, but this time, I decided to take a more active role. I got myself a fancy little program called Pingplotter, which has been of great help. It, along with Speedtest and Pingtest allowed me to pinpoint the problem...more or less.
And the problem is, seemingly, in the packet loss. My ping is relatively stable - around 45 - my connection is hardly used, and then BAM!, I get a 100% packet loss.
To illustrate it, here's a Pingplotter screenshot which was taken after it'd spent the last night "screening".
The red area indicates the packet loss, and the black line indicates the ping. As you can see, the ping is relatively okay (the connection was clean, nothing was going up or down the stream), while the packet loss just comes and goes.
Now, some of you may say, that isn't looking that bad, but bear with me, I shall elaborate.
During this summer I've been a real bitch to my ISP company. I had them come over ten times (this is not exaggerating) to change my cables, my modem/router, ethernet cable, make sure my wireless is properly "locked - every single thing. I also had my motherboard changed, and along with it my network interface controller. In short, I did everything. The problem slightly diminished.
What you see above is a graph taken last night, basically, after all these changes and fixes. Trust me, before doing that, the graph looked a lot, lot different. Let's just say it was way, way more red, and the black line wasn't so flat lying down (if anyone is really interested - though I doubt it - I can dig up old Pingplotter images I've saved).
In short, the problem persisted...again.
Here comes the best part.
Just for the sake of knowing, I connected my modem/router to my laptop via ethernet. The connection there? Flawless.
Ping is less than 30 when the connection is clean, and collectively, I have a total packet loss taking about 5 minutes daily there - meaning that if I lose connection, it connects after 10-20 seconds at max, several times a day - something I consider perfect tolerable and normal.
Remember that my computer, my big machine, is new, as well as the laptop. And only the big thing suffers.
Oh, and be it mentioned, that I'm the only person I know who has this problem. My uncle, living in a house next door, has absolutely same ISP and internet package. Yet he doesn't have any problems.
The question I have for you, if anyone could possibly know, is why?
Also, before someone says the most simple solution: "Why not change the ISP?", my answer is, it's impossible. These guys are the only ones who cover this part of town.
I simply have no idea what it could be. Hardware? Software? It's obviously something local, since I'm the only one here who's troubled, maybe something with my machine only...
Am I emitting some sort of bio-energy that kills connection?
Whoever reads all this, I thank you. Whoever bothers to actually reply, I thank you even more.
You've been warned.
Here we go...
About a year ago I decided to upgrade my Internet "package"- increase download and upload, speed in general, add wireless and so on, along with upgrading my computer - new motherboard, GPU, CPU etc. along with upgrading to Win 7.
Soon after making that upgrade, I started having problems with my connection - it would get lost from time to time i.e. I'd just disconnect for a brief period of time, and then reconnect again. This would happen regardless how much of my "connection flow"was occupied - meaning regardless if I were downloading, uploading, playing something online, or simply typing messages via Skype, the connection would break, again and again.
I decided to give a call to my ISP/cable company to come and fix it. The tech support came in, did their work, mainly something with the incoming signal, though I'm not too sure... However, after a brief period of time, there was a recurrence in the problem.
I again started to lose my connection, and so on. The cable guys came again and again...and again...and again...and you get the drill. They came many, many times. They'd check my signal and equipment, say it was top notch, and then just leave.
Soon after that, I got occupied with school and so on and didn't have that much time to spend online - so the problem - which was still there - became less recognized.
Another year has passed, another summer has come. Freedom.
And with freedom comes a need for wasting time on the Internet. And with freedom comes frustration.
The problem still persisted, but this time, I decided to take a more active role. I got myself a fancy little program called Pingplotter, which has been of great help. It, along with Speedtest and Pingtest allowed me to pinpoint the problem...more or less.
And the problem is, seemingly, in the packet loss. My ping is relatively stable - around 45 - my connection is hardly used, and then BAM!, I get a 100% packet loss.
To illustrate it, here's a Pingplotter screenshot which was taken after it'd spent the last night "screening".
The red area indicates the packet loss, and the black line indicates the ping. As you can see, the ping is relatively okay (the connection was clean, nothing was going up or down the stream), while the packet loss just comes and goes.
Now, some of you may say, that isn't looking that bad, but bear with me, I shall elaborate.
During this summer I've been a real bitch to my ISP company. I had them come over ten times (this is not exaggerating) to change my cables, my modem/router, ethernet cable, make sure my wireless is properly "locked - every single thing. I also had my motherboard changed, and along with it my network interface controller. In short, I did everything. The problem slightly diminished.
What you see above is a graph taken last night, basically, after all these changes and fixes. Trust me, before doing that, the graph looked a lot, lot different. Let's just say it was way, way more red, and the black line wasn't so flat lying down (if anyone is really interested - though I doubt it - I can dig up old Pingplotter images I've saved).
In short, the problem persisted...again.
Here comes the best part.
Just for the sake of knowing, I connected my modem/router to my laptop via ethernet. The connection there? Flawless.
Ping is less than 30 when the connection is clean, and collectively, I have a total packet loss taking about 5 minutes daily there - meaning that if I lose connection, it connects after 10-20 seconds at max, several times a day - something I consider perfect tolerable and normal.
Remember that my computer, my big machine, is new, as well as the laptop. And only the big thing suffers.
Oh, and be it mentioned, that I'm the only person I know who has this problem. My uncle, living in a house next door, has absolutely same ISP and internet package. Yet he doesn't have any problems.
The question I have for you, if anyone could possibly know, is why?
Also, before someone says the most simple solution: "Why not change the ISP?", my answer is, it's impossible. These guys are the only ones who cover this part of town.
I simply have no idea what it could be. Hardware? Software? It's obviously something local, since I'm the only one here who's troubled, maybe something with my machine only...
Am I emitting some sort of bio-energy that kills connection?
Whoever reads all this, I thank you. Whoever bothers to actually reply, I thank you even more.
